Reinforcing strip for finishing welts and the like



June 10, 1941. "BARR 2,245,540

REINFORCING STRIP FOR FINISHING WELTS AND THE LIKE Filed Oct. 2. 1959 Patented June 10, 1941 REINFORCIN G STRIP FOR FINISHING WELTS AND THE LIKE Glen G. Barr, Union City, Ind., assignor to Backstay Welt Company, Union City, Ind., a corporation of Indiana Application October 2, 1939, Serial No. t297,611

6 Claims.

This invention relates to reinforcing strips for finishing welts, gimps, bindings, glass run channels and analogous bodies, and more particularly to such strips as are provided with transversely arranged wire strands for making the body strong, pliable and form retaining.

Wire inserts were proposed for automobile top moldings as long ago as 1926, in the Bolender and Creamer Patent No. 1,581,670, and for glass run channels as early as 1925, in the Randall Patent No. 1,530,695. These and other early inserts were made wholly of wire and diificulty Was experienced with raveling and other kinds of distortion during; the processes of forming the strips and manipulating them in the manufacture of the composite product. In 1929 R. C. Schemmel proposed, in Patent No. 1,719,729, a finishing welt filler strip having transverse strands of wire interwoven with longitudinal strands of cotton to hold the wire in place. Since that date it has been common to employ wire cloth filler strips in welts and the like, and numerous efforts have been made to improve such strips in respect of economy of manufacture, ease of handling, and mode of operation in the final product. The strip disclosed by F. A. Best in Patent No. 2,084,364, issued in 1935, is representative of these efforts and constitutes one of the best of the recently proposed improvements.

Economy of manufacture is of course always an important consideration, and ability of the strip to be bent or curved flatwise about short curves without kinking, puckering or buckling is foremost among the requiredroperating qualities. It is principally in respect of these two matters of cost and bendability that the strip proposed by this present invention excels the best of the prior art of which I am aware. However, other advantages are present in the new construction, as will appear from the following description of a preferred embodiment of the invention.

In the drawing, in which the same reference character designates the same part in the several views,

Figure 1 is a plan view of a tape or strip of paper prior to the folding operations by which it is formed into one of the longitudinal strands of the reinforcing strip;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the finished paper strand;

Fig. 3 is a relatively enlarged cross-sectional view of the paper strand, taken on the line 33 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a plan view of a fragment of a sheet of interwoven wire and paper strands which, after a coating operation, will be cut into a plurality of the reinforcin'g strips;

Fig. 5 is across-sectional view of the sheet shown in Fig. 4 and shows diagrammatically one method of practicing the coating operation;

Fig. 6 is a plan view of the sheet with the coating applied, ready tobe out into strips;

Fig. 7 is a plan view of one of the strips which constitute the final product; and Fig. 8 is an enlarged detail cross-sectional view taken on the line 88 of Fig. 6.

In these views, Figs. 1, 2, 4 and 6 are somewhat enlarged over preferred actual size; Figs. 3 and 8 are considerably further enlarged; and Figs. 5 and 7 aresubstantially actual size.

However, these views and the present description are given merely by way of illustrating a single practical embodiment of the invention which has been found by actual experience to be entirely satisfactory and which is therefore at present preferred by me. They are not intended to limit the invention to the specific form shown. On the contrary, I recognize that the invention is capable of embodiment in other and further modified forms, since some of the important principles of the construction can be varied without departing from the spirit of the invention, and I therefore intend that the apv pended claims which seek to define the principles of the invention be accorded the widest scope permitted by the fair implication of their terms and the state of the prior art.

I My invention may be considered to be based on the premise that the active or wire portion which extends crosswise of a reinforcing strip of the character indicated must have associated with it some means for holding the wire against raveling' and other forms of distortion. This holding means is best made to extend lengthwise of the strip. If the holding means extend, as I prefer to have it, wholly lengthwise, parallel to the longitudinal edges of the strip and not diagonally, it will be apparent that it does not become bent when the strip is folded lengthwise on itself as for example when the flap of a blind nail finishing welt containing the strip is lifted from the base of the welt or folded down onto thebase. But it will be evident that when such a welt or the like is curved flatwise, particularly if the radius of curvature be short, these longitudinal elements are subjected to considerable stress, those at the inside of the curve being longitudinally compressed and those at the outside being tensioned. It is impractical to make these longitudinal elements elastic, so the stresses impressed on them during flatwise bending must be accommodated in some other way.

The present construction accommodates these stresses in several ways, so that the tendency to undesired distortion out of the plane of the flatwise curve is, so to speak, absorbed, and the strip remains flat in its curved portion.

The longitudinal elements are, according to this invention, preferably made of extremely inexpensive and easily handled material. A preferred coating material, which I use to bond the transverse Wire to t e longitudinally arranged holding elements, is comparatively expensive, but best results are obtained when this coating material is used very sparingly, and in the relatively minute quantities thus required this element of the construction adds very little to the cost of the strip. Indeed, this slight added cost is more than made up by the monetary saving effected by the possibility of speedier manufacturing, the elimination of defective runs, and the capacity of the product to be rapidly and even carelessly handled in the process of its incorporation into the welt or other ultimate product.

Referring now to the drawing, the transverse element of the strip is of coarse wire, preferably a soft annealed iron wire which is pliable and inert or inelastic and non-resilient so that it will retain any bend which may be put into it. Such a wire is shown at l in the figures. The wire strands, whether in the form of a single length convoluted back and forth or in the form of a plurality of separate lengths, are interwoven with the longitudinal elements to form a wide and long textile sheet, a portion of which is shown in Fig. 4.

The longitudinal elements are best made of paper, preferably but not necessarily of thin kraft paper. I prefer to start with paper strips or tapes 2 which are approximately six times the width of the desired longitudinal strand. The tape 2 is first folded lengthwise along its median line, and then each of the side marginal portions of the folded, two-ply tape, each such portion comprising about one-third the width of the doubled tape, is folded over onto the central onethird of the doubled tape, so that the resulting folded body is six plies thick and has a closed fold along each longitudinal edge, as clearly appear at 3 and 4 in Fig. 3. This completes the formation of the element 5. A plurality of these elements are woven with wire I arranged as transverse strands 6 to form the sheet shown in Fig. 4.

The paper used for the tape 2 is thin enough to make the multi-ply strand 5 quite thin, even though this strand contains as many as the suggested six plies. It is possible and preferable to make the strands 5 thinner than the diameter of the wire I. Thus the effective thickness of the woven sheet is kept down to a minimum.

Woven as illustrated in Fig. 4, the wide sheet has a selvage along each side so that raveling is no problem, although it is possible for the several strands to move relatively during handling, which of course is objectionable. However, the wide sheet is to be out along parallel lines to provide a plurality of narrow strips or tapes of the type shown in Fig. '7, and since not all of these narrow strips will have even one selvage, it is necessary to employ some means to hold the strands in place.

For this purpose I employ a coating of cementitious material designated by the stippling "I in Figs. 6 and '7 and by the layer 1 of exaggerated thickness in Fig. 8. Numerous materials may be used for this coating, but I prefer rubber deposited from a latex dispersion which may be sprayed onto the sheet from nozzles 8 as schematically indicated in Fig. 5. I prefer spraying to dipping because I have found it best to keep the coat thickness down to a minimum. There are several reasons for this. It is economical. It minimizes the thickness of the product. It gives the product more flexibility and less rigidity than a thickly coated sheet. And, probably most important of all, it minimizes the penetration of the coating material into the paper. This latter point deserves explanation.

It will be remembered that the paper strands are preferably of multi-ply thickness and provided with closed folds 3 and 4 along their longitudinal edges. This construction of the strands, particularly when the coating is applied in the form of a light spray, keeps the coating material from penetrating into the substance of the paper in the interior of the strands. There is therefore dry or unimpregnated paper inside of each strand 5, and in the preferred construction illustrated there are, inside of each strand 5, dry or unimpregnated paper surfaces in contact with each other. Such a strand I have found to be much more easily and neatly bendable flatwise than a completely impregnated strand of paper. Whether this effect is produced because there is less material crowded into the insides of the strands 5, or because some sliding of the paper plies on each other takes place, or for some other reason, I do not know, but it is a fact that narrow woven fabrics made as I have indicated possess curving properties superior to any other with which I am acquainted.

The coating material may be pure latex or any one of numerous compounds now available. The substance may be compounded to result in a dry coating, or it may be compounded to remain tacky temporarily or permanently so as to make the reinforcing strip self-cementing to the plies of the welt or the like with which it will be associated.

It remains only to be stated that the wide sheet shown in Fig. 6 is cut into a plurality of narrow strips one of which is shown in Fig. '7, and these constitute the product contemplated by this invention.

I have endeavored to make it plain that modifications are contemplated, and I shall not attempt to suggest how the preferred construction should be changed to meet different requirements of use. However, it may be observed that the coating 1 may be applied thick enough or liberally enough to fill the interstices between the strands if increased lateral stiffness is desired. Again, the paper need not be folded exactly as suggested. There are other Ways of arranging the paper of the strands 5 to keep'their interiors free or relatively free of the coating material.

A very possible but slower and more expensive way of making the strip is to weave the strands together as an originally narrow tape, but I prefer to take advantage of the economy of weaving the sheet wide and thereafter cutting it up into narrow widths.

Paper as used in this specification and the claims is intended to cover paper-like fabrics, such as Cellophane, glassine, etc., although I do not consider these materials to be as good as kraft paper.

The specification and claims speak of the strands as extending lengthwise and crosswise. They may, without violation of the spirit of the invention, combine components having these directions, as by extending more or less diagonally. They may be woven on the bias or the strips may be bias-cut from a square woven sheet.

Other obvious changes from the illustrated embodiment will suggest themselves to those skilled in the art.

I claim:

1. In a narrow fabric reinforcing strip for finishing welts and the like, a plurality of parallel weft strands of pliable wire, a plurality of parallel warp strands each consisting of a flat, thin tape formed from a strip of paper folded edgewise on itself, said strands being woven together to form a thin textile body characterized by large interstices between adjacent parallel strands whereby the wire strands are devoid of kinks or angular bends at their crossings with the paper strands, and a thin layer of cementitious material securing the strands together at their crossings whereby the strands are sufficiently free and the mesh is sufficiently open to permit a limited degree of relative adjustment of the strands when the fabric is curved flatwise laterally.

2. In a narrow fabric reinforcing strip for finishing welts and the like, a plurality of parallel weft strands of pliable wire, in combination with a plurality of parallel warp strands each consisting of a fiat, thin tape formed from a strip of paper folded edgewise on itself, said strands being woven together to form a thin textile body characterized by large interstices between adjacent parallel strands whereby the wire strands are devoid of kinks or angular bends at their crossings with the paper strands thereby permitting a limited degree of relative adjustment of the strands when the fabric is curved flatwise laterally, and a coating of cementitious material carried by the weft strands and by the exterior surfaces only of the warp strands, leaving theinterior surfaces of the paper plies relatively free to slide on each other when the fabric is curved flatwise laterally and securing the strands together at their points of crossing.

3. In a narrow fabric reinforcing strip for finishing welts and the like, a plurality of parallel weft strands of pliable wire, in combination with a plurality of parallel warp strands each consisting of a flat, thin tape formed from a strip of paper folded edgewise on itself, said strands being woven together to form a thin textile body characterized by large interstices between adjacent parallel strands whereby the wire strands are devoid of kinks or angular bends at their crossings with the paper strands thereby permitting a limited degree of relative adjustment of the strands when the fabric is curved flatwise laterally, and each warp strand having a closed fold along each longitudinal edge and a coating of cementitious material carried by the weft strands and by the exterior surfaces only of the warp strands, leaving the interior surfaces of the paper plies relatively free to slide on each other when the fabric is curved flatwise laterally and securing the strands together at their points of crossing.

4. In a narrow fabric reinforcing strip for finishing welts and the like, a plurality of parallel weft strands of pliable wire, in combination with a plurality of parallel warp strands each consisting of a flat, thin tape formed from a strip of paper folded edgewise on itself, said strands being woven together to form a thin textile body characterized by large interstices between adjacent parallel strands whereby the wire strands are devoid of kinks or angular bends at their crossings with the paper strands thereby permitting a limited degree of relative adjustment of the strands when the fabric is curved flatwise laterally, and each warp strand being an originally wide strip of paper having both its longitudinal margins folded inwardly over the central zone of the strip whereby a closed fold extends along each longitudinal edge of the strand, and a coating of cementitious material carried by the Weft strands and by the exterior surfaces only of the warp strandsleaving the interior surfaces of the paper plies relatively free to slide on each other when the fabric is curved flatwise laterally and securing the strands together at their points of crossing.

5. A reinforcing strip as claimed in claim 4 in which each warp strand consists of a strip of paper which has first been doubled lengthwise on itself to provide a two-ply strip having a closed fold along one longitudinal edge and which has thereafter had both its longitudinal margins folded inwardly over the central zone of the twoply strip whereby the strand contains sixplies of paper and has a closed fold along each longitudinal edge which excludes the cementitious coating from interior plies of the strand.

6. In a narrow fabric reinforcing strip for finishing welts and the like, a plurality of parallel weft strands of pliable wire, a plurality of parallel Warp strands each consisting of a flat, thin tape of paper, said strands being woven together to form a thin textile body characterized by large interstices between adjacent parallel strands whereby the wire strands are devoid of kinks or angular bends at their crossings with the paper strands, and a thin layer of cementitious material securing the strands together at their crossings whereby the strands are sufiiciently free and the mesh is sufficiently open to permit a limited degree of relative adjustment of the strands when the fabric is curved flatwise laterally, andeach paper strand consisting of a plurality of plies having internal juxtaposed surfaces devoid of cementitious coating and free to slide slightly on each other when the fabric is curved flatwise laterally.

GLEN G. BARR. 

